Turnpike (software)
Encyclopedia
Turnpike is a British-developed software suite for Microsoft Windows
, originally written by Chris Hall and Richard Clayton (who had previously been the co-founders and principal programmers of Locomotive Software
). The suite, which comprises a combined email and news client as well as a separate program for handling the Internet connection aspects, first appeared in 1995. It was acquired by Demon Internet
later the same year and for a number of years was supplied to their customers free of charge. It also has a small following of non-Demon users. Amongst its early reviews were those in Everyday Practical Electronics in November, 1995 and PC Format
in Spring 1997.
Its advocates claim it to be more straightforward to use and less buggy than the equivalent Microsoft product. The current version is version 6.07, the first that will run successfully under Vista
; further major revision is unlikely. Turnpike 6.07 can be run on the 32-bit version of Windows 7, but not on the initial release of the 64-bit version.
Turnpike uses the Berkeley mailbox format for the export and import of email files.
The suite consists of two principal components, Connect, which interfaces with the modem driver or LAN, and Turnpike, which controls, sorts and displays news articles and email. Prior to version 6 the Turnpike component was a stand-alone executable whilst from version 6 onwards it is implemented as a Windows Shell namespace
extension. Mail filtering can be done using Unix-like regular expression
s.
Versions 4 and beyond were 32-bit, and early versions of 5 included PGP
.
Although no Linux
port was produced, all versions work satisfactorily under packages such as the proprietary Win4Lin
. Versions up to and including 5 also work quite well under Wine
, but the Windows Explorer
integration of Turnpike 6 has proved difficult to use in this way.
Versions 5 and 6 have received the Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval
.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, originally written by Chris Hall and Richard Clayton (who had previously been the co-founders and principal programmers of Locomotive Software
Locomotive Software
Locomotive Software was a small British software house which did most of its development for Amstrad's home and small business computers of the 1980s....
). The suite, which comprises a combined email and news client as well as a separate program for handling the Internet connection aspects, first appeared in 1995. It was acquired by Demon Internet
Demon Internet
Demon Internet is a British Internet Service Provider. It was one of the UK's earliest ISPs, especially targeting the "dialup" audience. It started on 1 June 1992 from an idea posted on CIX by Cliff Stanford of Demon Systems Ltd. The branch in the Netherlands started in 1996, and was sold to KPN...
later the same year and for a number of years was supplied to their customers free of charge. It also has a small following of non-Demon users. Amongst its early reviews were those in Everyday Practical Electronics in November, 1995 and PC Format
PC Format
PC Format is a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication since 1991, it is part of Future Publishing's Format series of magazines that include articles about games, entertainment and how to...
in Spring 1997.
Its advocates claim it to be more straightforward to use and less buggy than the equivalent Microsoft product. The current version is version 6.07, the first that will run successfully under Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
; further major revision is unlikely. Turnpike 6.07 can be run on the 32-bit version of Windows 7, but not on the initial release of the 64-bit version.
Turnpike uses the Berkeley mailbox format for the export and import of email files.
The suite consists of two principal components, Connect, which interfaces with the modem driver or LAN, and Turnpike, which controls, sorts and displays news articles and email. Prior to version 6 the Turnpike component was a stand-alone executable whilst from version 6 onwards it is implemented as a Windows Shell namespace
Windows Shell namespace
In Windows Shell programming, the Windows Shell namespace is an organized tree-structured hierarchical representation that Windows Explorer facilitates to graphically present file system contents and other objects to the end user...
extension. Mail filtering can be done using Unix-like regular expression
Regular expression
In computing, a regular expression provides a concise and flexible means for "matching" strings of text, such as particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. Abbreviations for "regular expression" include "regex" and "regexp"...
s.
Versions 4 and beyond were 32-bit, and early versions of 5 included PGP
Pretty Good Privacy
Pretty Good Privacy is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, E-mails, files, directories and whole disk partitions to increase the security...
.
Although no Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
port was produced, all versions work satisfactorily under packages such as the proprietary Win4Lin
Win4Lin
Win4Lin was a proprietary software application for Linux which allowed users to run a copy of Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000 or XP applications on their Linux desktop.-Overview:...
. Versions up to and including 5 also work quite well under Wine
Wine (software)
Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...
, but the Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer
This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
integration of Turnpike 6 has proved difficult to use in this way.
Versions 5 and 6 have received the Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval
Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval
The Good NetKeeping Seal of Approval or GNKSA is a designation that indicates a piece of Usenet newsreader software meets a set of usability and formatting standards...
.
External links
- Demon Knowledge Base article with download link
- [news:demon.ip.support.turnpike Demon.ip.support.turnpike newsgroup]